Convention Debates Procedure For Ratifying New Constitution

Members of the Constitutional Convention debated last night the number of students who must vote to ratify the proposed student assembly before the assembly can consider itself the legitimate voice of student opinion.

A motion to stipulate that the constitution be ratified by a canvass of three-fifths of undergraduates, with two-thirds of those voting approving, was postponed until convention delegates could talk to students about the issue.

"Setting a voter turnout level will kill us and wipe out all these months of work," Johnathan Propp '80, a Mather House delegate, said last night.

The main objection many students have with the rough draft of the constitution released this week is the low limit on voter turnout in the draft, convention members said last night.

The rough draft states that if two-thirds of the students voting approve of the constitution, the student assembly would be ratified.

William A. Groll '80, chairman of a convention subcommittee to study student governments at other schools, said establishment of minimum restrictions on voter turnout is "unprecedented."

"I think it's assinine to talk about what margin we need to set our voting level at to push our constitution through," Stephen Winthrop '80, a South House delegate, said last night. "If we don't have a strong mandate then we will simply not be the sole legitimate representative of the students, as we say in the preamble."

Overloaded

Convention delegates plan to hold meetings in every House in the next two weeks to inform students about the convention's aims and to allow them to read and comment on the rough draft of the constitution.

The convention also passed a resolution mandating that the assembly develop three-year plans to provide continuity to the efforts of the proposed student government.